Broken
by Gavin Silverblade
Summary: Post-musical, AU. Fiyero and Elphaba really did die, and now Glinda has to cope with the grief that she feels. Two-shot.
1. Sorrow

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for the plot. All other rights go to Gregory Maguire, Stephen Schwartz, and Winnie Holzman.**

It had been weeks since the passing of the Wicked Witch of the West, and all of Oz was celebrating. Well, almost all of Oz. For one person, the celebration only hurt. Every night, after a long day of putting on the façade that she was oh, so used to after years of practice, one person wept, wallowing in the memories of the dearly departed: many know her as Glinda the Good. _They_ knew her simply as Glinda and, before that, Galinda. _They_ had been her only true friends during her time at Shiz University such a long time ago, and right now, _they_ were the only two people that mattered to her. And they were both gone.

She should've seen it coming. Really, she should've. It was only a matter of time before they appeared in her dreams, ready to take out all of their anger on her. It began only a few days after the… incident, and they hadn't stopped since then. Every day, she felt worse and worse as they picked her apart in her sleep. She didn't know how much longer she could take it. As the hauntings, as she had started to call them, progressed, she had started giving less and less attention to the pressures of ruling Oz. One day, she even did nothing but sit in a chair with a kind of blank, unreadable expression on her face. Periodically, she muttered something that sounded close to a name and then drifted back into her catatonic state. No one could comfort her, and the citizens of Oz began to grow worried. It seemed as though nothing could save her. This is a recount of one of the more recent nights...

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It had been like any other dream: the area around her was misty and foggy, and it looked as though Glinda was in the middle of a forest clearing. She looked around for a second, and when she brought her head around to look forward again, there they were, standing right in front of her. Although she knew the response wouldn't be any different, she asked the question that she always asked.

"Elphie? Fiyero?" Her voice sounded hopeful, but she knew what was coming next. Elphaba scowled as well as Fiyero, and what came next never ceased to tear at her very soul.

"You lied to us. You betrayed us," the green woman growled in a low and threatening voice. Glinda's eyes teared up.

"Please, Elphie, I've said that I'm sorry so many times," she pleaded. "I feel absolutely horrendible about it, about everything. Please, I'm begging you, forgive me," she continued as tears threatened to spill out of her eyes. It was now Fiyero's turn to speak.

"You think that saying 'sorry' will fix everything?" he said, his anger almost tangible. "You really think that we'll forgive you for what you've done? Your actions cost us both of our lives, Glinda, and you honestly think that we'll forgive you just like that?!" Fiyero raised his voice towards the end, and that's when the tears came. Glinda knew what he said was true, but that didn't make his words any less painful.

"Oh, look, now she's crying. Oh, no, I feel so bad," Elphaba remarked, her voice heavy with sarcasm. "Oh, please, give me a break." Glinda looked up at her through the veil of her tears.

"Elphie…" Elphaba's eyes narrowed.

"You don't deserve to call me that anymore. Not after what you did. You killed my sister, and through that, you killed Fiyero as well. You betrayed me on several occasions, starting back when we were in the attic in that god-forsaken palace all those years ago. I will _never_ forgive you, and neither will Fiyero. I wish I could say that I'm sorry, but truthfully, I'm not." The two turned around and began to walk away.

"Wait!" Glinda cried, but they just ignored her and kept walking. "Elphaba! Fiyero! Please, come back! Don't leave me here all by myself!" she shouted through the breaks between her sobs, but to no avail. "Please, I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry!" Glinda could do nothing but watch as the two figures faded away. "Please! I need you! Please, come back! Please!" She collapsed into a ball on the ground, sobbing, and she remained this way until the world around her faded to black.

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**A/N: So, yeah. I know it's short, but... oh, well. I'm planning on adding a second chapter that has a happier ending, but for now, please review! Thank you!**


	2. Solace

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for the plot. All other rights go to Gregory Maguire, Stephen Schwartz, and Winnie Holzman.**

**A/N: Thank you for reviewing, Canis Tempestas and Doglover645! Canis, based on your review, I think you'll enjoy this ending. I won't spoil anything, though... you'll have to read to find out!**

Glinda was awoken by a strange feeling. It was almost as if someone was there, but without actually being there. It was a very confusifying thought for the blonde, and it was because of this that she slowly opened her eyes. The first thing she noticed was that her face was wet. _I must have been crying while I was dreaming_, she thought—not that it was a surprise to her, given the contents of the dream. The second thing she noticed, however, was slightly more shocking: an otherworldly glow coming from the foot of her oversized bed, and it surely wasn't caused by the rays of the sun starting to peek over the horizon. This was different; it had a bit of a greenish hue to it. It was faint, but it was enough so that she could see it. Too afraid to move, she lied there until she heard something that she thought she would never hear again.

"Glinda," a soft voice said, almost whispering. It wasn't the sudden sound that shocked her, though. It was the voice: she would've recognized that voice anywhere. Eyes widening, she sat straight up, coming face to face with someone that she never thought that she would hear from again.

"E-Elphie?" she whispered, her heart pounding. Elphaba nodded, a look of sorrow in her eyes. Still recovering from her most recent dream, Glinda's eyes immediately filled up with tears. Before she herself even knew what she was doing, she lunged toward her friend, embracing her in a bear hug. She couldn't hold it in any longer, and she broke down.

"Oh, Elphie! I'm so, so sorry! If I hadn't said anything to Morrible, then none of this would've happened! Please forgive me! Please!" she begged through broken sobs. After a period of silence that was only broken by the sound of her crying, the two pulled away, the greener of the two wearing an expression somewhere in between sadness and compassion.

"Glinda," Elphaba said, a sad smile on her face. "Please, don't do this to yourself. You did nothing wrong, and it hurts me to see you suffer like this. Whatever you think you've done wrong, I forgive you." Glinda looked at her, feeling like a 10-ton weight was just lifted off of her chest when another thought hit her.

"But Fiyero-" she started.

"-forgives you, as well," came a new voice, this one decidedly male. The blonde looked in the direction of the voice, taken aback by what she saw.

"Fiyero?" The young man nodded. "But… how could you two possibly forgive me when it was what I did that caused you to – to…" she trailed off, unable to utter the word that would complete her question. Both of the spirits' expressions turned into surprise.

"Oh, Glinda," Fiyero said. "You think that we blame you for our deaths?" Glinda looked up at him, confusion written all over her face.

"You mean…you don't?" she asked, wary of what their response would be.

"Of course not," the former Captain of the Guard said, and Elphaba nodded in agreement. Upon hearing this, Glinda's eyes welled up with tears again, and she collapsed into the arms of her two friends, both of whom had moved closer to Glinda on the bed. Lying there, she quietly cried with both of them comforting her to the best of their ability—Fiyero stroked her hair, and Elphaba hugged her. After what seemed like hours, the three pulled away from each other.

"I love you guys," Glinda said quietly. All of them smiled, but the smiles soon faded from the two spirits.

"Glinda," Fiyero began. "As much as we'd like to stay here, you have a life to live, and, well…"

"We can't exactly be around for that," Elphaba finished. Glinda's face fell, but she didn't get too worked up over it. A part of her had been telling her the entire time that it would have to end at some point. Noticing her crestfallen look, Fiyero spoke up.

"I know you'd prefer for us to stick around, but we can't. I'm really sorry." Glinda looked up at him again.

"Oh, no, I understand. I can't say I know anything about the afterlife, but I guess you still have things to do even after death, huh?" They all chuckled at this.

"We just want you to know that we'll always be there for you, even when you can't see us," Elphaba stated. "I know it's hard, but please, try to live your life without us. After all, you have an entire country to attend to, now, and we certainly can't have its leader break down on us, can we?" Glinda smiled slightly, but the smile vanished as quickly as it came.

"Elphie, Fiyero," she started, "will I ever see you again?" Fiyero sighed.

"I'm sorry, Glinda, I really am, but...I'm afraid this is goodbye," he said somberly. Glinda looked down, thinking of what her final words to them would be.

"You two were the best friends that I'd ever had. I'm going to miss you," Glinda stated.

"We'll miss you, too," Elphaba said sadly. They sat there in silence until the sun finished rising, and by the time a guard came in to wake her up, they were gone.

"Lady Glinda?" the guard said. "It's time to begin your tasks for the day." She looked up at him.

"Okay, I'll be right out," she said with a bittersweet undertone to her voice. She sat there for a bit, lost in thought, before getting out of her bed.

And it was that day that, for the first time since the Wicked Witch's demise, Glinda Upland slept soundly through the night.

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**A/N: There's a happy ending for you! I've got to admit, I had a lot more fun writing this chapter than I did the previous. I guess I just like these characters too much to make them suffer... for long, anyway. Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this story! Be sure to review, and thanks in advance for doing so!**


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